(Update) Tacurong blast kills 4, injures over 30 others
05/09/2007 | 12:22 AM
A homemade bomb went off near a market in a southern Philippine city Tuesday, killing four people and wounding more than 30 others, police and officials said.
The blast occurred close to a restaurant in Tacurong City, where election officials, candidates and military officers were meeting ahead of next week's elections for congressional, provincial, city and municipal posts.
Inspector Benjamin delos Santos, the city's deputy police chief, said four people were killed, while 32 others were wounded, some sustaining critical injuries.
Delos Santos said no one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but authorities suspect the blast was the work of extremists.
Representative Teng Mangudadatu, who was at the meeting with election officials, told local dxMS radio that a small crater was gouged out of the pavement by a bomb, across the street from the restaurant.
The area, which is also near a minibus passenger and motorcycle taxi terminal, was littered with shoes and slippers of victims and other people who scampered away in panic, he said.
Roman Catholic Bishop Jose Colin Bagaforo, whose office is near the site, said, "The explosion was so loud, it shook the neighborhood."
Tacurong was hit by bombs last year believed set off by the al-Qaeda-linked extremist Abu Sayyaf group and its allies from the Indonesia-based terror group Jema'ah Islamiyah.
On December 28, four people were wounded in an explosion at a mall in Tacurong, and four others also were wounded in another blast near the market two months earlier.
Delos Santos said the improvised bomb used Tuesday was similar to an unexploded device found outside a police outpost in the city on April 29, which police suspect was also the work of Muslim extremists.
Violence have marred Philippine elections, including the current campaign for next week's polls in which more than 75 people have been killed, but police did not immediately link the explosion to the May 14 ballot.
Nearly 87,000 candidates are vying for 17,000 national and local positions, including 265 seats in the House of Representatives and half of the 24 Senate seats. - AP
The blast occurred close to a restaurant in Tacurong City, where election officials, candidates and military officers were meeting ahead of next week's elections for congressional, provincial, city and municipal posts.
Inspector Benjamin delos Santos, the city's deputy police chief, said four people were killed, while 32 others were wounded, some sustaining critical injuries.
Delos Santos said no one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but authorities suspect the blast was the work of extremists.
Representative Teng Mangudadatu, who was at the meeting with election officials, told local dxMS radio that a small crater was gouged out of the pavement by a bomb, across the street from the restaurant.
The area, which is also near a minibus passenger and motorcycle taxi terminal, was littered with shoes and slippers of victims and other people who scampered away in panic, he said.
Roman Catholic Bishop Jose Colin Bagaforo, whose office is near the site, said, "The explosion was so loud, it shook the neighborhood."
Tacurong was hit by bombs last year believed set off by the al-Qaeda-linked extremist Abu Sayyaf group and its allies from the Indonesia-based terror group Jema'ah Islamiyah.
On December 28, four people were wounded in an explosion at a mall in Tacurong, and four others also were wounded in another blast near the market two months earlier.
Delos Santos said the improvised bomb used Tuesday was similar to an unexploded device found outside a police outpost in the city on April 29, which police suspect was also the work of Muslim extremists.
Violence have marred Philippine elections, including the current campaign for next week's polls in which more than 75 people have been killed, but police did not immediately link the explosion to the May 14 ballot.
Nearly 87,000 candidates are vying for 17,000 national and local positions, including 265 seats in the House of Representatives and half of the 24 Senate seats. - AP
